Primates
- Published on: 4 July 2024
- Last updated on: 15 April 2025
This page contains information on the health certificate requirements for animal movements into and out of Ireland.
For information on welfare or transporter requirements (e.g. driver certification and vehicle authorisation) please see the transport or contact transport@agriculture.gov.ie.
It is important to make sure all CITES certificates (for endangered animals) are in place before any move. Please see Introduction to CITES, National Parks & Wildlife Service (npws.ie).
Primates can strictly only be moved into and out of a confined establishment (formerly known as a Balai approved establishment). All other premises CANNOT receive or send primates. They CANNOT be moved as pets.
This includes all primates; apes, monkeys, lemurs, tarsiers, loris etc.
For import from a non-EU country please see gov - Confined Establishment (Zoo) Animals from non-EU countries (www.gov.ie).
For intra-EU movements into or out of Ireland, you must ensure:
• both the premises of origin and destination within the EU are both government approved [external-link https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/412da-animal-breeding/#approved-establishments-laboratories | confined establishments ] allowed to keep primates,
• and use the correct health certificate for animals between confined establishments (2021/403) Confined-LIVE-Intra.
Health cert 2021/403 Confined-PRIMATE-Intra is only to be used in rare special cases and when approval has been sought in advance of any movement by both the authorities of the EU member states of origin and destination, when a confined establishment wants to take in a primate from a non-confined establishment.
For export to a non-EU country, please contact the country of destination for import requirements and livetrade@agriculture.gov.ie.